Early last year, the then-freshman Oregon House member from Portland was getting ready for bed when he and his wife, Katy, began bantering back and forth about what might be the ultimate political prank, something that could lighten the increasingly divisive political mood among his colleagues.

As Smith recalls, the idea came almost instantly. "What if we were to Rick Roll the legislature without anybody noticing?" he wondered.

And that was the seed for what may ultimately prove to be one of the most elaborate political jokes of all time: A nearly two-minute long video of members of the Oregon House of Representatives saying the lyrics of Rick Astley's ubiquitous '80s pop ballad, "Never Gonna Give You Up," literally one word or phrase at a time while in session.

As The Ticket reported yesterday, the video, which was posted to YouTube on April Fools Day, has quickly gone viral, meriting write-ups on dozens of blogs and even getting play on MSNBC.

The big question: Was it real?

The answer, according to Smith, "absolutely."

"I've been reading the online chatter," Smith, a Democrat, told The Ticket in his first interview about the video. "Were they actors? Were people's voices dubbed? The answer is that it's all real. Every second is real."